LAHORE, Oct 28: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has issued directives to various departments to revive their sports activities in order to provide job opportunities to the players.

This was stated by President, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Qasim Zia, while addressing a press conference here on Tuesday. Qasim said that he had met with the prime minister with a demand of reviving sports activities in the different departments soon after getting the general council’s vote of confidence.

“And I am thankful to the prime minister for having taken prompt action regarding the matter. As far as I know, directives have already been sent out to United Bank Limited, Allied Bank Limited and the Customs department,” he said.

Sports departments at various organisations had been running in the past, creating good job opportunities for the players but their closure in the different departments resulted in failure to attract more players to the national game of hockey.

Qasim, who also met with former Olympians and the national team captain at the PHF offices on Tuesday, said that he had shared with them different ideas in order to get their feedback on ways leading to the promotion of the game here.

“The senior Olympians endorsed the PHF activity plan and have assured me of their all out support for its success,” he said.

The PHF president said that he had informed the Olympians of the federation’s plan of emphasising on the grass-root level by setting up academies to prepare a talented pool for the senior as well as other teams.

“With the PHF trying to raise funds to meet the expenditures, the boys attending the academies, besides being given a stipend, would also get a scholarship and sports equipment,” he said.

He said the national inter-school and inter-club championship, which will see the champion club and school taking part in foreign tournaments, would be another step towards the game’s revival at the grass-root level.

The meeting was attended by PHF’s former president Akhtar Rasool, Khalid Mahmood, Farooq Umar and various others Olympians.

To a question, the PHF president said that since he was busy reviving the game at the domestic level, their international activity plan would come out by January.

“We will try our best to bring back international hockey to Pakistan, which has kept away from here due to the security concerns of foreign teams. Moreover, the national team will make several visits abroad too as no team can improve its game without playing internationally,” he said.